Frio Coldshoe Is a Hot, Handy Holder for Strobists

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Frio Coldshoe Is a Hot, Handy Holder for Strobists

If you spent $500 on a Nikon SB900 Speedlight, you'll remember how happy you were with this great flash. You'll then remember the rage, followed by disbelief, when you discovered that it wouldn't fit any of your existing lighting gear thanks to the stupid fat foot that Nikon put on it, a hot-shoe that would make a midget tall enough to reach the top-shelf magazines. This forced you to use the included tripod adapter, which Nikon decided to make with a fast-stripping plastic tripod thread. Plastic. On a $500 flash.

Luckily, someone out there is thinking straight and, starting next month, you'll be able to buy the Frio Coldshoe, a miraculous widget that will fit any flash, including the club-footed SB900, and mount it safely on any light-stand or tripod.

We like it for a few reasons. First, it is secure. A springy tab automatically clicks shut when you slide in a flash (or mic, or LED-panel) and needs to be pressed to release. There is also a hole in just the right place for Canon and Nikon locking pins to slide in. Second, the tripod-mount is metal, which means it'll last. And third, it's tiny, way smaller than Nikon's dumb adapter.

The Frio comes from Orbis, the ring-flash adapter people, and exists currently only on the teaser site, not yet on sale. My guess is that it will be cheap enough to buy a handful and just leave them on every one of your strobes.